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By the end of the first season for NASCAR's Next Gen car in 2022, there were two major issues that clearly needed to be addressed for the sake of driver safety. For one, the rigidness of the car led to too much of the force of impacts being transferred to the driver, particularly in the case of rear impacts. For another, there were several incidents of fires beginning in the exhaust and rocker box area of the car knocking drivers out of races and posing an obvious hazard.

In order to try and solve both problems, a number of technical changes were implemented by NASCAR for the 2023 season. But last week's Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum showed that it remains to be seen whether the changes made were effective on both fronts.

In practice on Saturday, an alarming sight occurred when Ty Gibbs' car burst into flames from its right side, leading to the 20-year-old Cup rookie having to quickly bail from his machine. Gibbs was uninjured and his car was repaired, and NASCAR would end up determining that the fire was an "isolated incident" caused by improper installation of mufflers near the exhaust, which are being used this year to soften the noise level of cars on smaller tracks.

"We worked closely after that incident with the team. First time at an event with mufflers and the installation wasn't quite where it needed to be," NASCAR Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, per Motorsport.com. "We worked with the team, we got there after the incident and got it corrected. They got everything tight and where it needed to be.

"The good thing was, they used the same car, the same door, the front fenders. I think they changed the door foam and the windshield and then they were ready to go for the feature there. You know, we had 35 of them that were in great shape and ran races and all, but we had one that was just a little bit of an outlier. We got that straight and moved forward."

But while NASCAR was working to determine what caused the fire on Gibbs' car, the dialogue on rigid rear bumpers was once again ignited by Denny Hamlin. Speaking on his new podcast "Actions Detrimental," Hamlin claimed that taking bumper hits still hurt, while also sharing that he had to take oxygen on his flight home due to fume inhalation from what he believed was contact in both bumpers.

"I don't feel anything softer," Hamlin said. "... I mean, once you start bumper-tagging in the corners, your HANS (device) locks out and you can feel a jar in your head. It's still pretty abrupt."

After multiple drivers missed races due to concussions stemming from rear impacts last year, NASCAR had announced the implementation of a new rear bumper structure and rear clip in order to make that area of the car crumple better and transfer more force away from the driver. On his podcast, Hamlin alluded that NASCAR may still be testing softer bumpers.

Whether both issues follow NASCAR beyond the Clash and into the 2023 season remains to be seen, as Speedweeks in Daytona will offer the first true test of Next Gen safety updates at speeds far beyond what were run in last weekend's Clash.